Pets and people make for colorful, smelly mix during Hurricane Irma

Thousands of people line up Saturday to enter a hurricane shelter at Germain Arena in Estero, Florida. The line is more than a mile long. Residents throughout Florida are seeking last minute shelter in advance of Hurricane Irma.
Kinfay Moroti/news-press.com

A hamster snuck into a birdcage and snuggled up beside a parrot to ride out Hurricane Irma. Monkeys, turtles, cats and dogs filled classrooms and lined hallways. And the following morning, people woke up a rooster, instead of the other way around.

As the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean barreled toward Southwest Florida, more than 32,000 people and 3,000 pets sought refuge at 16 shelters in Lee County, spokeswoman Betsy Clayton said.

Early on, officials decided to allow evacuees to bring their pets. Why?

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A dog waits in line to get into Germain Arena with thousands of other Hurricane Irma evacuees on Saturday, September 9, 2017, in Estero. Thousands of pets were brought to Lee County shelters during the hurricane.(Photo11: Amanda Inscore/The News-Press)

"Pets are family,” said Karen Fordiani, public information specialist with Lee County Domestic Animal Services.

Plus, officials didn't want to give people any reason to stay home with their pet if they couldn't be taken into a shelter.

"Storms are very stressful on pets. They can feel it coming hours before we can, and they’re an emotional support for people,” Fordiani said. “It was quite colorful at the shelters.”

But at Island Coast High School, a shelter used in Cape Coral, all of the critters seemed calm, said Kathleen Pignato, who had evacuated two days before the storm.

“It was really, really eerie,” she said.

Despite all of the noise, chaos and strangers surrounding them, the pets quietly sat next to their owners, waited patiently for them to return from the bathroom or silently slept on a blanket or inside their crate. It was almost as if they knew what was happening, Pignato said.

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Florida residents wait to enter Ray V. Pottorf Elementary School in Fort Myers on Saturday 9/9/2017 morning. It is a shelter for those fleeing Hurricane Irma. They are one of the shelters offering a safe haven for pets as well. (Photo11: Andrew West/The News-Press, Andrew West/news-press.com)

The same could be said at Ray V. Pottorf Elementary School, a shelter in Fort Myers.

“It was surprisingly chill,” said Victoria Martin, 55, who had arrived the day before the storm. “I thought there would be a lot of barking, a lot of anxiety barking, and a lot of anxiety snapping.”

Animals and people were packed into classrooms, hallways and arenas for two or more consecutive days. When the shelters were on lockdown due to high winds, pee pads and newspapers lined walkways, and toilets in some places had trouble flushing.

The rooms and hallways had little to no circulation and the air became stagnant, Pignato said. But it could’ve been worse.

“It didn’t smell as bad as I feared it might,” Pignato said. “But my husband was gagging the entire time.”

Florida residents wait to enter Ray V. Pottorf Elementary School in Fort Myers on Saturday 9/9/2017 morning. It is a shelter for those fleeing Hurricane Irma. They are one of the shelters offering a safe haven for pets as well. (Photo11: Andrew West/The News-Press, Andrew West/news-press.com)

With so many people and animals cooped up together, interesting things are bound to happen.

Like the time county staff members decided to wake up a rooster before it had the chance to wake everyone else, said Fordiani, the county’s public information specialist.

Or the hamster that wanted some company. It was kept in a shallow Tupperware container with air holes and a non-latching top, and it broke out during the night Hurricane Irma made landfall, Fordiani said. The little critter found its way into a birdcage occupied by a sun conure, a brightly colored parrot.

“They spent the storm together and no harm was done to either pet,” Fordiani said in an email. “The bird owner found the hamster in the morning and thought the whole incident was very funny.”

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